Axolotls are teenage salamander that are unable to metamorphose further and so stays as an amphibian, living underwater. They originate from Mexico and used to inhabit two lakes, Lake Xochimilco and Lake Chalco; however Lake Chalco was drained in the 1970’s to prevent flooding. Axolotls were also offered as food to workers around the lakes. Mexican’s still offer cooked axolotl as a dish mainly served on market stalls, although this is declining now as even fishermen are finding it harder to find them. Although axolotls can currently be found in Lake Xochimilco, it can barely be called a lake any more. Having been filled with Mexico’s waste since the 1980’s, and artificially filled with alien species which have become competitors for the food belonging to the axolotl the lake is now more ‘a series of canals and scattered lagoons. Numbers have rapidly depleted from a predicted 1,500 per square mile in 1998 to only 25 per square mile in 2008. There is now a reported 200 left in the wild and within two years it could be that you can only find the axolotl in captivity, in pet shops, zoos or homes. The axolotl is currently listed on the Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
So what we can do about this?
BY TRACEY
BY TRACEY
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